tl|p  Hibrarg  0f 
Prtnrrton  oClt^iibgtral  g>^mtttarg 


3S242.5 


CRUCIFIXION 


/ 

JOHN  H.  OSBORNE 


WOLCOTT  &  WEST 

SYRACUSE,  N.  Y. 

1897 


Copyright  1897, 
By  John  H.  Osborne. 


preface* 

It  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  careftilly 
reading  the  accounts  of  our  Saviour's  cruci- 
fixion, that  many  of  the  incidents  have  never 
been  explained  with  completeness,  nor  in  a 
manner  consistent  with  what  we  know  con- 
cerning the  reasons  and  grounds  for  crucifix- 
ion as  practiced  by  the  Romans.  Among 
other  incidents,  the  following,  viz:  the  three 
different  kinds  of  drink  of  which  ''vinegar" 
was  the  basis,  the  method  of  affixing  the 
body  to  the  cross  by  three  or  four  nails,  the 
breaking  the  legs  of  the  victim,  the  spear- 
thrust  in  the  side,  have  all  been  treated  by 
many  writers  during  these  eighteen  centuries, 
who  have  for  the  greater  part  accepted 
in  succession,  each  from  precursors,  the 
same  explanations  of  them,  which,  from  the 
first,  could  have  been  founded  only  on  con- 
jecture ;  therefore,  if  we  would  not  now  pro- 


ceed  upon  the  same  course  of  mere  assump- 
tion, we  must  find  adequate  explanation  of 
them  mainly  in  the  modes  and  customs  of 
Roman  military  punishment. 

It  is  through  reasonable  inferences  drawn 
from  such  customs,  and  particularly  from  one 
principle  well  established  in  Roman  state  and 
military  policy,  that  the  attempt  at  a  fairly 
probable  and  consistent  solution  is  proposed 
in  the  following  pages. 

J.  H.  O. 

Auburn,  N.  Y. 


It   will    be  seen   from    the  above   table   of 
contents  that  the  printer  has  made  an  error 
in  the  page  headings  of  the  last  two  chap- 
ters. 


Contents* 


Preface,        3 

The  Roman  Method  of  Crucifixion,  7 
The  Crucifixion  of  Jesus,  .  .  .47 
Reflections, 78 


Ube  IRoman  /iDetbot)  ot  Cructflxton. 


It  is  singular  that  so  little  should  ever  have 
been  certainly  and  definitely  known  regard- 
ing this,  the  most  cruel  and  shameful  punish- 
ment inflicted  by  the  Romans.  And  yet,  on 
reflection,  it  will  not  appear  so  very  strange, 
since  we  know  that  detailed  and  minute  de- 
scriptions of  the  modes  of  punishment  for 
criminals  have  never  occupied  any  prominent 
place  in  the  popular  literature  of  any  time  or 
country.  In  our  own  day,  for  instance,  with 
so  much  activity  in  every  field  of  knowledge, 
the  method  and  machinery  used  in  the  capital 
punishment  of  hanging  are  known  in  their 
details  to  very  few ;  even  when  some  notable 
criminal  is  put  to  death,  the  daily  press  (and 
very  properly)  seldom  gives  any  elaborate 
description  of  the  apparatus  employed,  and 
the  general  public  is  content  to  kno^sr  that 
in  accordance  with  the  sentence  pronounced 

7 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

by  the  judge  at  the  close  of  his  trial,  the 
culprit  ^was  ''hanged  by  the  neck  until  he 
was  dead."  If  hanging  were  universally 
abolished  today,  it  may  be  doubted  whether, 
in  eighteen  hundred  or  even  in  five  hundred 
years  from  now,  there  would  be  found  ac- 
counts of  the  apparatus  and  process  any  less 
fragmentary  or  more  definite  than  those  we 
have  today  in  regard  to  crucifixion  as  prac- 
ticed in  the  time  of  our  Saviour. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  cross  was 
not  represented  as  an  emblem  of  our  salva- 
tion during  the  first  325  years  of  the  Chris- 
tian era ;  it  was  an  abominable  and  detested 
thing,  as  the  gallows  is  now,  a  symbol  of 
shame  and  slavery;  and  therefore,  until  the 
time  of  Constantine,  who  was  the  first  Ro- 
man emperor  to  embrace  the  Christian  relig- 
ion, there  would  be  no  endeavor  made  by 
Roman,  Jewish  or  Christian  w^riter  to  pre- 
serve any  account  of  this  dread  process  for 
the  infliction  of  death.  The  little  we  may 
know  about  it  is  to  be  gathered  from  writ- 

8 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

ings  in  which  mention  must  be  made  of  it 
from  necessity,  and  only  by  allusion  and  as 
related  in  an  illustrative  way  to  some  other 
topic  forming  the  principal  subject  of  the 
writing. 

The  apostle  Paul  frequently  alludes  to  the 
cross  as  a  symbol  of  shame  and  speaks  of  the 
offence  {<:fcdv8a\ov)  of  the  cross ;  and  it  must 
have  been  with  great  horror,  loathing  and 
disgust  that  any  unconverted  man  should 
read  about  Paul's  glorying  in  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  he  rejoiced  in  being 
daily  crucified  with  his  Lord.  To  a  Roman  of 
polished  but  pagan  education,  such  declara- 
tions would  appear  as  the  extreme  aberra- 
tions of  a  disordered  brain,  and  Paul  would 
readily  be  reckoned  as  among  those  intellect- 
ual cranks  to  any  one  of  whom  a  Festus 
might  exclaim,"  Thou  art  beside  thyself,  much 
learning  hath  made  thee  mad." 

There  were  some  incidents  attending  our 
Saviour's  crucifixion,  explanations  of  which 
have  been  offered  by  writers  in  commentaries 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

and  cyclopedias,  but  they  are  not  at  all  satis- 
factory, because    they  do    not    account   for 
those  incidents  consistently  and  in  harmony 
with  what  we  know   of  Roman  policy  and 
practice  in  military  executions.    Two  of  these 
incidents    are:     first,    the    offer    of    vinegar 
mingled    with    gall    to   Jesus    when    on  the 
cross  as  well  as  before  He  was  crucified  ;   and 
secondly,  the  breaking  the  legs  of  the  cruci- 
fied at  the  time  of  their  being  taken  down 
from  the  cross.      The  very    inadequate    ex- 
planation of  these  proceedings  is,  that  they 
were  both   acts  of  mercy;   that  the  vinegar 
and  gall,  or,  as  named  in  another  place,  the 
wine  mingled  with  myrrh,  was  given  in  order 
to  partly  dull  the  senses   or  to  stupefy  the 
victim  and  thus  to  lessen  the  pain ;   and  that 
the  legs  were  broken  as  a  closing  act  of  the 
scene  in  order  to  hasten  death  and  thus  the 
termination  of  his  misery. 

These  explanations  are  not  admissible,  and 
simply  for  the  reason  that  thus  the  period  of 
suffering  would  be  shortened,  and  they  con- 

lO 


OP  CRVCIFIXIOn. 

travene  the  fact  that  crucifixion  was  prac- 
ticed in  order  that  the  sufferings  of  the  vic- 
tim should  be  as  intense  and  prolonged  as 
possible.  It  was  a  niilitarj^  punishment  as  at 
first  practiced  by  the  Romans,  and  had  its 
origin  in  military  necessity.  Roman  policy, 
as  exercised  toward  the  states  that  were  to 
be  subjugated,  was  essentially  a  policy  of 
terror ;  *'  Vae  victis  !  woe  to  the  conquered !  " 
was  the  terrible  cry  that  sounded  forth  be- 
fore their  armies  as  they  entered  upon  the 
bloody  work  of  battle  and  destruction,  and 
the  captives  taken  were  in  greater  part  ap- 
pointed to  death  in  such  manner  as  would 
best  serve  to  terrify  the  people  and  make 
them  willing,  through  abject  fear,  to  pass 
under  the  Roman  yoke. 

Thus  the  death  by  crucifixion,  as  will  appear 
further  on  in  this  paper,  was  the  most  cruel 
that  could  be  devised ;  but  it  would  have  been 
most  contradictory  to  the  spirit  in  which  that 
punishment  was  inflicted,  and  would  have  re- 
vealed a  broad  inconsistency  in  the  procedure, 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

if  at  any  stage  the  element  of  mercy  had  en- 
tered to  relieve,  in  never  so  slight  a  degree, 
its  bitter  and  protracted  suffering.  For  it 
was  an  infliction  carefully  so  ordered  that 
the  body  of  the  victim  should  not  be  attached 
at  any  vital  point  while  he  was  kept  slowly 
dying  "  by  inches  "  under  the  agonies  of  star- 
vation and  thirst.  The  suiferer  was  held  for 
days  under  the  tortures  of  this  living  death, 
unless  at  times  he  was  fortunately  rendered 
unconscious  of  his  pains  by  the  delirium  that 
accompanied  the  hard  fever  and  slight  loss  of 
blood  from  the  wounds  in  his  hands  and  feet. 
Men  of  fairly  strong  constitution  lasted  out 
this  bitter  experience  during  from  three  to 
eight  days ;  the  instance  recorded  of  longest 
survival  being  nine  days;  while  with  the 
case  of  a  weak  or  sickly  frame  the  wretched 
scene  might  close  within  the  first  twenty-four 
or  forty -eight  hours,  but  seldom  in  less  than 
the  time  first  mentioned. 

Our  Lord's  death  came  when  He  had  been 
on  the  cross  but  six  hours,  and  it  is  one  of  the 


12 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

objects  of  this  and  another  paper  to  show- 
why  it  should  have  come  so  soon.  The  ma- 
terial contributed  by  the  records  is  so  scanty 
and  vague  as  to  serve  merely  for  a  frame  work 
on  which  to  build  up  our  complete  account, 
such  as  would  be  furnished  by  the  inferences 
fairly  to  be  drawn  from  the  extant  records  of 
military  custom  and  state  policy.  That  ac- 
count should  proceed  upon  fair  and  natural  de- 
ductions made  legitimately  from  known  facts 
of  history  and  custom ;  thus  may  we,  haply, 
make  out  a  rounded  and  complete  story  in 
which  there  shall  be  place  for  all  necessary 
facts  and  incidents  related  in  the  Gospel  nar- 
rative, and  each  of  them  shall  fall  without 
design  into  its  own  place  as  forming  a  con- 
sistent and  natural  part  in  the  whole  sad 
tragedy. 

Nearly  fifty  years  ago  the  discovery  of  the 
outermost  planet  of  our  solar  system  was 
made  by  a  French  mathematician,  who  com- 
puted the  elements  of  an  unknown  wander- 
ing body  whose  influence  had  for  a  long  time 

13 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

been  a  source  of  perplexity  to  astronomers ; 
by  his  advice  the  telescope  was  on  a  specified 
night  turned  to  a  certain  point  in  the  heavens, 
where  his  calculations  had  led  him  to  believe 
that  a  planet  was  to  be  found ;  there,  in  fact, 
it  was,  and  then  for  the  first  time  was  it 
entered  on  astronomers'  charts  as  one  of  the 
glorious  array  constituting  our  planetary 
system.  Ma3^  we  not,  therefore,  somewhat 
after  the  same  manner,  and  with  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  the  essential  elements  at  hand, 
construct  an  account  of  a  Roman  crucifixion 
that,  being  in  harmony  with  all  known  facts, 
and  having  all  its  parts  established  as  true 
by  fact  or  true  by  fair  inference,  each  of  them 
shall  have  such  just  and  proper  relation  to 
all  other  parts  as  shall  commend  the  whole 
to  our  understanding  as  an  acceptable  and 
fully  credible  representation  of  a  crucifixion 
scene  ? 

As  Agassiz,  the  naturalist,  having  the  scale 
of  a  fossil  fish  before  him,  might  construct 
all  of  its  body  again  from  tip  to  tail,  and 

14 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

from  that  reconstructed  form  make  a  true 
statement  of  its  habits  and  habitat;  as 
Cuvier,  from  the  tarsal  bone  of  a  bird  ages  ago 
extinct,  might  render  a  complete  account  of 
its  form  and  manner  of  life;  so  may  we, 
doubtless,  from  the  records,  few  and  scanty 
though  they  be,  construct  an  account  that 
will  be  true,  because  of  the  harmony  there 
will  be  between  all  related  facts  and  all  the  in- 
ferences ^which  ''by  good  and  necessary  con- 
sequence may  be  deduced  therefrom." 

It  may  be  again  stated,  since  the  fact  is  a 
controlling  one  and  too  important  to  be  lost 
sight  of  for  a  moment,  that  the  policy  and 
usage  of  Rome  in  her  treatment  of  every  na- 
tion and  tribe  subdued  to  her  arms  was  un- 
varyingly that  of  the  utmost  cruelty;  and 
that  cruelty  was  continued  in  practice  until 
nation,  tribe  or  people  had  become  so  com- 
pletely overawed  and  reduced  that  no  hope  or 
thought  remained  to  them  of  opposition  to 
Roman  sway.  When  a  Roman  general,  upon 
his  invasion  of  a  country,  had  fought  a  battle 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

and  gained  a  victory,  he  had  a  large  number 
of  captives,  both  of  those  taken  from  the  de- 
feated army  and  of  the  unarmed  dwellers  in 
cities  and  villages  near  the  battlefield.  They 
were  all  diiTerent  in  class  and  various  in  con- 
dition, and  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the 
victor. 

With  the  end  of  subjugation  in  view, 
there  was  no  exchange  of  prisoners,  neither 
could  the  captives  be  allowed  to  go  free. 
There  thus  remained  for  them  the  fate  of 
either  slavery  or  death ;  and  the  only  problem 
before  the  general  was,  how  to  so  assort 
them  that  those  best  fitted  by  education,  by 
trade  or  other  adaptation,  could  be  made 
useful  as  slaves  in  Rome.  Such  were  reserved 
for  the  slave  market  there,  and  the  remaining 
mass  of  captives,  and  generally  the  far  greater 
part,  were  made  useful  to  Roman  policy  in 
subjugating  the  country  by  being  put  to  the 
slow  tortures  of  starvation ;  for  after  long 
experience  in  various  sorts  of  military  pun- 
ishment it  had  been  found  that  this  was  the 

i6 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 


most    agonizing  and  protracted  method  of 
torment  in  all  the  repertory  of  cruelty. 

For  the  purpose,  therefore,  of  securing  the 
doomed  men  during  the  days  of  gnawing  hun- 
ger, when  in  desperation  they  might  use  any  ex- 
treme violence  to  escape  its  agonies,  the  most 
simple  and  obvious  method  was  to  bind  each 
of  them  by  cords  or  withes  to  a  tree  or  post ; 
and  thus  for  the  great  herd  of  the  condemned 
a  wide  space  near  the  camp  was  reserved  in 
which,  in  addition  to  the  trees  growing  there, 
holes  were  dug  for  countless  posts  ;  each  post 
was  set  up  by  t^wo  out  of  a  party  of  four  sol- 
diers detailed  to  crucify  a  victim ;  the  other 
two  soldiers  passed  with  the  condemned  man 
to  the  nearest  wood  or  to  the  ruined  houses 
of  some  village  to  obtain  the  cross  bar  to  be 
affixed  at  the  top  of  the  post  or  at  a  suitable 
height  on  the  living  tree,  they  also  provided 
themselves  with  ropes  or  green  withes  with 
which  to  suspend  the  man  from  the  cross  bar; 
he  bore  the  cross  thus  provided  for  his  own  exe- 
cution, for  the  indolent  and  merciless  soldiers 
compelled  him. 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

After  they  had  returned  in  this  manner 
to  the  place  in  the  field  where  the  upright 
post  had  been  already  set  by  other  cap- 
tives under  direction  of  the  other  two  sol- 
diers, the  cross  bar  was  securely  fixed  at 
the  top  and  then  two  short  stakes  of  equal 
length  were  prepared.  These  were  made  with 
the  upper  end  ''square  across,"  and  with  the 
lower  end  sharpened,  and  were  driven  into 
the  ground  close  beside  and  nearly  in  front  of 
the  upright  post, —  being  separated  from  each 
other  by  a  little  space.  The  tops  of  these 
stakes  were  from  six  to  eighteen  inches  from 
the  ground,  and  on  these  the  victim  was 
forced  to  stand,  a  foot  on  each  stake,  while 
the  four  at  once  attached  the  cords  around 
his  body,  and  fastened  them  over  the  cross 
bar  close  to  the  upright,  so  that  when  the 
stakes  had  been  taken  from  under  his  feet  the 
body  hung  suspended  by  the  cords  or  withes. 
It  ivas  then  but  a  short  task  to  drive  a  nail 
through  each  hand  and  foot  so  that  the  poor 
wretch  might  be  thoroughly  secured  against 

i8 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

any  hope  of  escape ;  for  if  left  without  this 
nailing,  the  arms  and  hands  might  be  readily 
used  for  untying  the  cords  that  suspended 
him  and  so  escape  would  be  easy  during  the 
darkness  of  the  night. 

Let  us  now  call  attention  to  the  absurdities 
in  the  representations  of  crucifixion  offered  to 
us  by  the  religious  artists  of  Christendom  in 
the  hundreds  of  paintings  and  sculptures  in 
the  galleries  of  the  Old  World.  The  cross  is 
nearly  always  made  of  such  height  that  the 
victim  on  it  is  elevated  with  his  feet  almost 
or  quite  above  the  head  of  one  standing  on 
the  ground  near  by.  For  the  earlier  events, 
the  cross  is  shown  laid  on  the  ground  already 
completed,  with  the  victim  extended  upon  it 
and  the  soldiers  are  driving  nails  through 
hands  and  feet ;  next  after  this  is  the  scene 
where  the^^  are  raising  up  the  cross  with  the 
condemned  man  thus  attached  only  by  the 
nails,  to  set  it  in  the  hole  prepared  for  it. 
Now  all  this,  while  highly  pathetic  and  poetic, 
is  wholly  and  absurdly  improbable  and  it 

19 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 


might  be  said  impossible.  We  cannot  follow 
OUT  imaginative  painters  in  these  scenes  nor 
accept  their  presentation  of  them  as  suffi- 
ciently authoritative  in  the  case ;  for  they  had 
no  more  reliable  accounts  of  the  processes  in 
crucifixion  than  vv^e  of  this  day  have. 

The  stolid  brutes  who  composed  the  mass  of 
a  mercenary  Roman  army  did  not,  v/e  may  be 
quite  sure,  perform  any  of  their  tasks  with  an 
eye  to  the  picturesque,  the  pathetic  or  the 
poetic.  The  lazy  and  degraded  creatures 
went  through  their  work  only  to  do  what 
was  actually  necessary  for  the  end  in  view. 
They  would  not  make  the  upright  post  any 
longer  than  would  suffice  to  raise  the  victim's 
feet  a  little  from  the  ground  ;  and  for  this  pur- 
pose a  height  of  six  or  twelve  inches  would  be 
as  good  as  six  feet.  They  would  not  first  at- 
tach the  cross-bar  before  setting  the  upright 
post  because,  as  they  had  other  condemned 
men  in  their  charge  to  crucify,  they  would 
make  use  of  them  in  setting  the  upright  post 
while  others  of  their  own  party  were  looking 


OP  CRVCIPIXION. 

Up  the  cross-bar.  The  rough  hewing  of  a 
notch  or  ''revet"  at  the  top  of  a  post  could 
be  done  before  it  was  set  in  the  hole,  and  the 
bar  when  brought  could  be  quickly  nailed  in 
the  notch.  Nor  would  they  give  themselves 
the  needless  trouble  and  delay  of  completing 
the  cross  and  attaching  the  victim  while  it 
lay  prone  on  the  ground  and  then  raising  it 
all  to  be  set  and  steadied  in  the  hole  till  se- 
cured by  the  fiUed-in  earth. 

A  soldier  of  any  age  or  country  is  notori- 
ous for  exercising  his  -wits  to  make  himself 
comfortable  and  avoid  every  species  of  labor 
consistent  with  the  performance  of  his  duty, 
and  we  may  be  confident  that  every  crucifix- 
ion was  performed  with  strict  regard  to  econ- 
omy of  labor,  and  not  with  the  least  reference 
to  artistic  effect.  A  climax  of  absurdity  is 
reached  when  a  modern  commentator  declares 
that  the  soldiers  raised  up  the  cross  with  the 
victim  on  it  and  then  allowed  it  to  drop  into 
the  hole  with  a  heavy  thud  (!)  that  it  might 
produce  greater  pain  where  the  nails  passed 

21 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 


through  the  sensitive  Hmbs !    Where  did  our 
wise  expositor  learn  that  ? 

There  is  also  another  far  greater  absurdity 
in  representing  the  sufferer  as  attached  to  the 
cross  only  by  the  nails  through  hands  and 
feet.  The  crucifix  in  art  with  but  very  few 
exceptions  has  this  utterly  inept  presentation ; 
for  a  moment's  consideration  must  suffice  to 
show  how  ill-fitting  it  must  have  been  to  the 
actual  facts  of  the  case.  It  would  be  imprac- 
ticable for  any  man  to  maintain  the  posture 
represented  by  this  figure  on  the  crucifix  of 
art,  stretched  symmetrically  upright,  the 
body  in  its  whole  length  kept  parallel  with 
the  upright  post,  the  shoulders  at  nearly  a 
level  v^ith  the  cross-bar,  the  arms  stretched 
out  along  the  bar  at  nearly  right  angles  to 
the  body,  and  thus  the  whole  weight  made 
to  rest  on  the  one  or  two  nails  through  the 
feet.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  human 
being  by  the  utmost  exercise  of  muscle  and 
will  to  maintain  such  a  position  for  even  six 
minutes,  not  to  say  for  six  hours  or  days.    To 


22 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

declare  that  he  could  do  this  is  to  go  directly 
against  all  that  we  know  concerning  the 
limits  of  human  endurance  or  persistence. 
The  legs  could  not  be  thus  extended  and  kept 
on  the  tense  stretch ;  they  would  be  very  soon 
bent  outward  at  the  knees  so  as  to  let  the 
body  downward  and  forward,  and  it  would 
then  be  held  and  practically  supported  by  the 
nails  through  the  hands;  by  this  a  great 
weight  would  be  brought  upon  the  two  small 
carpal  bones  of  the  hand  where  the  nails 
passed  between  them,  and  upon  the  fine  and 
lax  ligaments  uniting  them  at  the  first  knuckle, 
and  it  would  be  entirely  too  great  for  them  to 
sustain ;  the  delicate  bones  would  be  broken 
and  the  ligaments  ruptured;  by  this  means 
the  wound  would  be  so  opened  and  enlarged 
as  to  allow  the  passage  of  the  nail-head 
through  it,  the  arm  would  then  be  released 
and  the  victim  would  fall  from  the  cross. 

More  than  this,  accounts  all  agree  that 
after  the  doomed  man  had  been  on  the  cross 
for  twenty-four  or  thirty-six  hours,  exposed 

23 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

to  a  burning  sun  by  day  and  to  the  chilling 
damps  of  night,  to  rain  or  cold,  there  came  a 
raging  fever  and  a  violent  delirium ;  in  the 
unconsciousness  attending  these  attacks  the 
body  must  have  been  subject  to  pitiable 
writhiags  and  contortions,  and  unless  held  by 
some  securer  means  than  nails  through  the 
delicate  structures  of  hands  and  feet,  it  would 
surely  be  loosened  and  fall.  In  some  cases 
there  was  a  wooden  pin  driven  into  the  post 
about  midway  to  serve  as  a  kind  of  seat  to 
bear  up  nearly  all  the  weight  of  the  body ; 
but  this  does  not  relieve  the  difficulty,  for  the 
upper  part  of  the  body  would  still  be  free  to 
writhe  and  sway  about  to  a  degree  sufficient 
to  effect  its  release  from  the  nails  in  the  hands; 
the  wooden  pin  at  the  middle  would  also 
serve  as  a  fulcrum,  by  means  of  which  the 
arms  and  legs,  as  powerful  levers,  would,  in 
the  convulsive  throes  of  a  delirious  state,  cer- 
tainly and  quickly  tear  the  hands  and  feet 
from  their  fastenings.  From  all  these  consid- 
erations we  are  well  warranted  in  concluding 


24 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

that  other  means  than  the  three  or  four  nails 
were  of  necessity  used  in  keeping  the  body  at- 
tached to  the  cross. 

And  here  it  is  pertinent  for  every  one  to  in- 
quire, Whence,  then,  did  the  unpractical 
artists  obtain  the  notion  of  nails  as  the  only 
means?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek;  it 
was  through  a  misconception  of  the  exact 
meaning  of  the  passage  in  John  xx.  25.  Our 
artists  were  devout  men,  and  were,  as  they 
thought,  guided  strictly  by  the  words  of  the 
Divine  Book,  and  since,  in  the  only  place 
where  mention  is  made  of  any  of  the  instru- 
ments of  crucifixion,  the  nails  alone  are  allu- 
ded to,  the  painters  forthwith  concluded  that 
these  were  exclusively  the  means  used  for  at- 
tachment to  the  cross.  But  Thomas'  declar- 
ation was  made  not  for  the  purpose  of  set- 
ting forth  an  exhaustive  description  of  the 
method  of  crucifixion,  but  for  another  and 
entirely  different  purpose ;  he  was  seeking  for 
evidence  of  the  identity  of  the  body  of  this 
man,  alleged  to  be  that  of  Jesus,  with  the 

25 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

body  of  his  Master  whom  he  knew  they  had 
applied  to  the  cross,  and  he  sought  for  that 
evidence  in  the  marks  that  could  be  left  by 
only  one  class  of  the  instruments  of  crucifix- 
ion, namely,  the  nails.  Thomas  did  not  add, 
'*  Except  I  shall  also  see  on  His  body  the  red 
marks  left  b^^  the  ropes  that  suppported  Him, 
I  will  not  believe;  "  Thomas  knew  better  than 
to  say  that,  for  it  was  now  the  eleventh  day 
since  Jesus  had  been  suspended  by  the  ropes, 
and  during  eight  days  of  those  eleven  the 
blood  had  been  coursing  through  His  revived 
body,  all  the  functions  of  life  were  again  in 
full  and  vigorous  exercise,  and  the  red  marks 
made  by  the  ropes  had  therefore  disappeared. 
It  was  a  strange  error  for  artists  to  adopt 
summarily  the  conclusion  that  the  sole  men- 
tion by  Thomas  of  the  nails  implied  the  sole 
use  of  them  as  the  affixive  appliances  for  the 
crucifixion  of  our  Lord. 

Thus  with  close  adherence  to  all  elements  of 
the  practical,  and  also  of  the  probable,  where- 
ever  statements  of  fact  have  failed  in  this 

26 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

study  of  our  subject,  we  find  that  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  cyclopedists  need  to  be  modified 
by  the  substitution  of  one  Httle  word  for 
another Httle  one;  they  all  agree  that  the  vic- 
tim was  affixed  by  ropes  or  nails,  it  needs 
that  *'  and  "  be  put  in  place  of  ^^  or,"  and  then 
the  statement,  by  ropes  and  nails  will  be  in 
accord  with  what  was  the  fact  in  every  in- 
stance. The  weight  of  the  sufferer  being  thus 
wholly  borne  by  the  ropes  or  withes  which 
held  him  suspended,  we  may  consider  in  what 
manner  and  by  what  portions  of  the  body  he 
could  be  hung  so  as  best  to  fulfil  the  object 
for  which  he  was  crucified;  for  it  may  be 
again  repeated  that  the  purpose  was  to  pro- 
long life  to  the  utmost,  that  he  might  undergo 
the  fullest  measure  of  torment  from  starva- 
tion and  thirst. 

During  the  long  and  frequent  wars  waged 
by  Rome,  and  with  the  constant  practice  of 
this  mode  of  torture  in  her  continued  and  un- 
varying course  of  conquest,  the  Roman  sol- 
diers in  crucify  ing  their  thousands  of  captives » 


27 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

must  have  become  adepts  in  the  art.  Con- 
stant opportunities  for  observation  would 
teach  them  that  victims  suspended  by  certain 
portions  of  the  body  would  survive  much 
longer  than  when  suspended  by  other  por- 
tions; they  would  find  that  ^where  a  red 
swelling  carhe  in  consequence  of  stricture  by 
the  rope,  there  heat  and  fever  would  occur, 
the  inflammation  would  be  followed  by  sup- 
puration and  mortification,  and  then  by  a  gan- 
grene which  would  all  too  quickly  terminate 
the  sufferer's  life. 

We  of  this  day  know  that  if  any  of  the 
limbs  had  been  bound  by  the  ropes  for  sus- 
pension, there  would  have  been  a  stoppage  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  and  then  would 
have  ensued  the  consequences  just  above 
stated ;  the  soldiers,  of  course,  knew  nothing 
about  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  but  ex- 
perience acquired  from  repeated  observation 
would  ere  long  indicate  to  them  by  what 
parts  suspension  could  be  made  so  as  to  per- 
mit of  longest  duration  of  life;    manifestly, 

28 


OF  CRUCIF^IXION. 

then,  the  method  concluded  on  would  be,  as 
the  man  stood  on  the  two  stakes  at  the  foot 
of  the  post  and  with  his  back  against  it,  to 
pass  the  rope  around  the  waist  and  just  un- 
der the  ribs,  then  tie  it  with  a  hard  knot  mod- 
erately tight,  leaving  the  knot  at  the  middle 
of  his  back,  then  the  two  ends  of  the  rope, 
being  long  enough,  were  passed  over  the 
cross-bar  close  to  its  junction  with  the  post, 
and  a  turn  or  two  around  the  post  would 
make  all  secure ;  then  the  nails  through  hands 
and  feet  would  prevent  any  violent  movement 
of  the  body,  and  particularly  would  keep  the 
hands  from  any  attempt  to  untie  the  rope. 
Held  in  such  wise,  there  would  be  pressure  ex- 
erted by  the  sufferer's  weight  only  on  the  soft 
and  yielding  viscera  of  the  abdomen,  on  the 
ribs  and  other  framework  near  to  the  ex- 
terior, but  no  constriction  could  be  brought 
on  any  large  vein  or  artery  to  cause  obstruc- 
tion or  hindrance  to  the  circulatory  flow. 

After  such  simple  methods  were  the  doomed 
men  prepared  for  their  horrible  fate ;  and  to 


29 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

the  number  of  hundreds,  sometimes  of  thou- 
sands, they  were  set  up  on  crosses  without 
the  camp.  .  Josephus  relates  that  at  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  there  could  not  be 
found  wood  enough  to  erect  crosses  for  all  the 
prisoners  condemned  to  that  death.  The 
crucifixions  were  occasions  of  rare  sport  for 
the  degraded  soldiery;  they  gloried  in  the 
mockery,  the  jibes  and  insults  that  could  be 
freely  flung  into  the  faces  of  the  condemned ; 
in  the  hearts  of  such  men,  unsoftened  by  any 
influence  of  Christian  civilization,  were  har- 
bored no  feelings  of  pity  or  mercy,  their 
words,  albeit  often  in  a  language  unknown 
to  those  on  the  cross,  were  yet  sufliciently  in- 
terpreted to  the  victims  by  glaring  eyes  and 
gestures  of  hate,  and  by  acts  of  cruelty  and 
brutality. 

During  the  days  through  which  the  sufferers 
survived,  their  torments  would  be  the  sport 
and  jest  of  the  executioners,  and  when,  from 
the  loss  of  blood  at  the  wounds,  from  the 
bitter  pangs  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and  also 

30 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

from  exposure  to  the  scorching  heat,  a  raging 
fever  had  come  upon  the  victim  by  the  second 
or  third  day,  then  the  pleasure  of  the  hard- 
ened brutes  was  greatest ;  they  gloated  over 
the  pitiable  throes  and  convulsions,  and  took 
delight  in  the  groans,  shrieks  and  curses  of 
the  hapless  sufferers.  So  through  the  long 
drawn  hours  of  every  day  did  their  besotted 
natures  find  interest  and  entertainment  in 
the  hard  wretchedness  of  the  crucified; 
through  the  day  indeed,  but  not  through  the 
night.  For  then  came  the  soldiers'  time  for 
sleep,  and  no  sleep  was  possible  if  these  awful 
cries  from  the  field  of  torment  near  to  camp 
came  to  fill  their  ears;  for  the  delirium  and 
fever  would  not  end  with  the  day  but  continue 
unrelieved  through  the  hours  of  night.  The 
cries  must  be  stopped  during  the  night  if  the 
soldier  would  have  his  rest  undisturbed,  there- 
fore some  means  must  be  provided  for  closing 
the  mouths  and  hushing  the  voices  of  these 
raging  men. 
An  infernal  drink  was  made  whose  corrosive 


31 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

and  astringent  qualities  admirably  served 
this  purpose ;  a  vinegar  of  scarifying  acidity 
that  resulted  from  the  acetous  fermentation 
of  a  strong  wine,  received  a  strong  admixture 
of  gall,  a  vegetable  product;  and  this,  when 
administered  in  such  scant  quantity  on  a 
bunch  of  hyssop  as  to  just  moisten  the  mouth 
and  throat,  hotly  parched  and  swollen  to 
great  tenderness  as  they  were,  would  by  its 
irritating  and  rasping  influence  corrugate  and 
constrict  the  throat  and  paralyse  the  vocal 
cords.  So  with  a  pail  of  the  mixture  and 
with  hyssop  tied  at  the  end  of  a  stick,  the 
watch  specially  detailed  at  night  for  this 
duty,  passed  everywhere  among  the  groves  of 
crosses,  offering  the  vile  stuff"  to  every  one 
they  heard  crying  out ;  and  eagerly  was  the 
little  sop  received ;  for  it  was  at  least,  moist- 
ure,— a  semblance  of  the  pure  drink  they  were 
longing  and  moaning  for;  but  the  next  mo- 
ment came  the  hard  gripe  of  acid  and  gall,  in- 
creasing their  suffering,  closing  the  throat  and 
almost  stopping  the  breath.    Thus  was  quiet 

32 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

secured  for  the  night  by  the  guard  furnished 
with  vessels  of  vinegar  mingled  with  gall, 
until  the  daybreak  came  and  the  awakening 
of  the  camp,  when  these  duties  were  no  longer 
required,  and  the  victims  resumed  their 
mournful  cries  as  one  by  one  they  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  bitter  mixture. 

So  through  the  days  of  suffering  and  nights 
of  horror  when  even  the  poor  relief  of  a  cry 
was  denied  them,  did  the  heavy  hours  of  tor- 
ture pass  ;  by  the  end  of  the  second  day  many 
of  those  with  weak  constitutions  would  be 
relieved  by  death,  others  in  greater  number 
would  succumb  during  the  third,  fourth  and 
fifth  days,  by  the  sixth  and  seventh  only  those 
of  greatest  vitality  would  survive,  and  by  the 
seventh  or  eighth  day  the  last  of  them  had 
passed  away,  all  having  been  kept  on  their 
crosses  till  death.  But  what  w^as  to  be  done 
with  those  remaining  alive,  if,  on  any  day  be- 
fore the  eighth,  military  policy  or  necessity  re- 
quired the  removal  of  the  army  ?  They  must 
not  be  released,  nor  must  they  be  left  to  be 

33 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

rescued  by  friends  and  relatives  and  in  a  con- 
dition to  be  nursed  back  to  life  and  health 
after  the  army  had  withdrawn ;  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  their  torment  be  brought 
to  a  merciful  end  by  a  spear  thrust  in  some 
vital  part,  but  some  way  must  be  devised  for 
rendering  the  short  remnant  of  their  lives  still 
a  prolonged  misery  even  after  their  rescue  by 
friends  when  the  army  had  gone. 

Such  a  way  was  found ;  just  before  depart- 
ure, the  guard  with  clubs  passed  among  the 
crosses,  and  whenever  the  doomed  one  on  any 
of  them  gave  signs  of  life,  a  blow  on  each  leg 
broke  the  bones,  and  so  the  poor  wretch,  even 
if  delivered  and  restored  to  freedom,  was  for- 
ever a  helpless  cripple  from  the  compound 
fractures  of  his  legs.  There  was  little  surgi- 
cal skill  among  those  barbarous  peoples  to 
amend  so  great  a  disaster ;  the  victim  must 
suffer  on  till  death,  his  onh^  comfort  being  in 
the  sympathy  and  alleviating  cares  rendered 
at  the  hands  of  his  friends. 

The  offering  of  the  vinegar  and  gall  and  the 

34 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

leg-breaking  have  both,  in  the  absence  of  pos- 
itive knowledge  on  the  subject,  been  wrongly 
interpreted  as  acts  of  mercy ;  the  drink,  it  is 
asserted,  was  intended  as  a  stupefying  potion 
to  dull  the  pain  by  taking  away  in  whole  or 
in  part  the  consciousness  of  the  victim  ;  and 
the  breaking  of  the  legs  it  is  said,  was  for  the 
purpose  of  hastening  death  and  so  giving 
quicker  relief  to  the  intolerable  suffering ;  but 
such  theories  are  wholly  inconsistent  with  the 
policy  of  utmost  cruelty  practiced  by  the 
Romans.  To  have  rendered  any  one  insensible 
to  pain  or  suffering  would  have  been  to  defeat 
the  very  object  in  view  ^vhen  he  was  attached 
to  the  cross ;  and  if  there  had  been  any  real 
purpose  to  shorten  the  misery  of  the  ^wretched 
men,  a  spear  thrust  into  the  heart  would 
have  effected  that  result  much  sooner  and 
more  surely  than  the  leg-breaking.  And  fur- 
ther, no  stupefying  effect  could  be  produced 
by  the  vinegar  and  gall,  indeed,  it  would  have 
a  result  entirely  the  opposite ;  and  breaking 
the  legs  would  not  necessarily  hasten  death ; 

35 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

it  might  in  some  case  accidentally  happen 
that  some  small  and  sharp  slivers  from  the 
broken  bone  might  be  driven  through  the  wall 
of  the  femoral  artery  or  femoral  vein,  and  so 
death  would  immediately  result.  Doubtless 
this  happened  in  the  case  of  the  penitent 
thief,  and  so  the  promise  of  our  Lord  to  him 
would  be  fulfilled,  "  Today  shalt  thou  be  with 
me  in  Paradise."  But  yet  the  men  who  gave 
the  blows  knew  nothing  about  arteries  and 
veins,  so  that  death  by  loss  of  blood  in  this 
way,  being  a  mere  contingency,  we  cannot 
conclude  that  such  an  end  was  calculated  on 
or  looked  for  by  the  executioners. 

As  the  soldiers  detailed  for  this  leg-breaking 
duty  passed  the  doomed  men  in  review,  many 
would  be  found  with  life  so  nearly  gone  as  to 
present  almost  the  semblance  of  death;  the 
exhausted  body  was  still,  the  heart  worn  out 
by  fever  and  pain,  had  nearly  ceased  to  beat, 
or  at  least  its  throbs  were  so  feeble  as  to  send 
the  blood  slowly  to  the  inner  parts  of  the 
body,  leaving  the  exterior  so  little  colored  by 

36 


OP  CRVCIPIXIOM. 

it  as  to  induce  belief  that  the  pallor  indicative 
of  death  had  already  come;  so  there  was 
doubt  whether  the  victim  yet  lived  or  might 
be  only  in  a  faint;  that  doubt  was  quickly 
and  brutally  solved  by  the  thrust  of  a  spear 
into  his  side;  if  blood  in  its  natural  state 
followed,  the  sufferer  was  yet  living  and  his 
legs  were  broken ;  but  if  no  blood  or  if  blood 
separated  into  white  scrum  and  red  fibrine  as 
we  of  this  day  know  it,  came  forth,  he  was 
dead,  and  the  soldiers  would  not  uselessly 
waste  their  strength  in  giving  the  unneces- 
sary blows  with  their  clubs. 

In  conclusion,  we  will  quote  a  few  passages 
from  some  of  the  ancient  classics  that  throw 
some   light    on  the    practice    of  crucifixion. 

Plautus,  Mostellaria,  I.  i.  52,  etc.     (Quarrel 

of    two  slaves  in  the  house    of  an    absent 

Athenian  merchant,  Grunio  and  Tuanio). 

**  Grunio.  O,  riddle  for  the  executioner,  as  I 
guess  it  will  turn  out ;  they  will  be  so  pinking 
you  with  goads  as  you  carry  your  gibbet 
someday  along  the  streets,  as  soon  as  the  old 
gentleman  comes  back. 


37 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

Tuanio.  How  do  you  know  that  fate  will 
not  happen  to  you  sooner  than  to  me  ? 

Grunio.  I  never  deserved  it;  you  did,  and 
do  now." 

Here  the  word  ' '  gibbet ' '  is  derived  from  a 
Latin  word  meaning  to  spread  out;  it  is  a 
noun,  the  name  of  the  transverse  beam  of  a 
cross,  holding  fast  the  outstretched  arms  of 
the  culprits. 

Cicero,  Pro  Rabirio,  IV.  11.  (On  the  in- 
iquity of  crucifying  a  man  who  was  a  Roman 
citizen). 

*'  Which  of  us,  then,  Sabienus,  is  really  the 
friend  of  the  people  ?  You,  who  think  that 
Roman  citizens  need  to  have  the  hangman  at 
hand  and  handcuffs  ready,  even  at  a  public 
meeting ;  you,  who  order  the  cross  to  be  fixed 
and  set  up  for  the  death  penalty  of  Roman 
citizens  in  the  very  Campus  Martins,  a  spot 
consecrated  by  the  Auguries,  where  the 
Comitia  Centuriata  are  held?  Or  I,  who 
forbid  the  meeting  to  be  tainted  by  the  ex- 
ecutioner's presence,  who  declare  that  the 
Forum  of  the  Roman  people  must  be 
cleansed  from  all  traces  of  so  infamous  a 
crime,  who  would  have  the  assembly  pre- 
served untainted,  the  Campus  sacred  ground, 
the  body  of  all  the  citizens  of  Rome  undefiled, 


38 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

and  who  maintains  that  the  right  of  liberty 
must  be  preserved  intact  ? 

"§12.  Yes,  this  democratic  tribune  of  the 
people  is  the  guardian,  then,  the  defender  of 
our  rights  and  liberties!  The  Porcian  law 
abolished  flogging  for  all  Roman  citizens; 
this  tender-hearted  creature  brings  the  scourge 
back  again.  The  Porcian  law  destroyed  the 
power  of  the  lictor  over  the  liberty  of  a  Ro- 
man citizen;  Sabienus,  the  people's  friend, 
hands  him  over  to  the  executioner.  C.  Grac- 
chus brought  in  a  bill  that  no  Roman  citizen 
should  be  indicted  on  a  capital  charge  with- 
out your  consent ;  yet  this  "  democrat,"  with- 
out your  consent,  has  compelled  the  two 
commissioners  not  (as  was  legal)  to  frame  a 
decision  concerning  a  man  who  was  a  Roman 
citizen,  but  to  convict  a  Roman  citizen  on  a 
capital  charge  without  even  a  hearing. 

"§13.  And  yet  you,  j^ou  talk  to  me  about 
the  Porcian  law,  about  Caius  Gracchus,  about 
the  people's  liberties,  about  friends  of  the 
people,  forsooth  !  you,  v^ho  have  attempted, 
not  only  by  unwonted  punishments  but  even 
in  speeches  of  unheard  of  ferocity,  to  violate 
the  liberty  of  this  people,  to  make  trial  of 
their  endurance,  to  change  their  customs ! 
This  is  the  sort  of  thing  that  pleases  you, 
who  call  yourself  a  merciful  and  "democratic" 
man!  "Go, lictor, bind  his  hands," a  formula 
which  not  only  does  not  belong  to  the  present 
state  of  civilization,  but  was  not  even  used 


39 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

by  Romulus  or  Numa  Pompilius  ;  the  word- 
ing belongs  to  the  tortures  devised  by  that 
arrogant  and  cruel  king,  Tarquin.  Doubtless 
a  kind-hearted  ''democrat"  like  you  can  re- 
member them;  "Veil  his  head,  hang  him  to 
the  barre-i  tree,"  words  which,  gentlemen  of 
Rome,  have  long  been  lost  for  this  state,  not 
only  in  the  twilight  of  antiquity,  but  in  the 
light  of  liberty  too. 

"§16.  Now,  if  we  must  have  death,  let  us 
die  free  men ;  let  there  be  no  talk  of  hangmen 
and  veiling  heads ;  let  us  get  rid  of  the  very 
name  of  the  cross,  not  only  from  the  whole 
body  of  Roman  citizens,  but  from  our  eyes, 
our  ears,  our  very  thoughts.  For  it  is  not 
only  the  doing  and  the  suffering  of  such 
things,  but  even  the  circumstances,  the 
thought,  the  open  reference  to  them  are  un- 
worthy of  a  Roman  citizen,  and  a  free  man. 
Shall  the  generosity  of  masters  free,  with  a 
single  touch  of  the  staff  of  manumission, 
their  slaves  from  the  dread  of  all  such  punish- 
ments and  3^et  neither  our  past  history,  nor 
our  achievements,  nor  the  dignified  posts 
which  you  fill,  free  us  from  the  lash,  from  the 
hook,  from  the  terror,  even,  of  the  cross." 

[The  copyist  who  furnished  the  foregoing 

from  Cicero  remarks  with  entire  truth,  that 

Cicero  is  here  guilty  of  special  pleading  for 

rhetorical  purpose;  —  his  vague  allusions  to 


40 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

Tarquin,  the  omission  of  the  important  word 
reste,  *'by  a  rope,"  in  the  formula,  Infelici 
arhori^  etc.] 

Justiniis  the  historian  and  annalist,  XXII. 
vii.  8  and  9  (concerning  Bomilcar  the  Carth- 
aginian who  intended  to  desert  to  Agathocles 
the  Sicilian  tyrant). 

**§8.  For  this  crime  he  was  fastened  to  a 
cross-bar  by  the  Carthaginians  in  the  midst 
of  the  Forum,  that  the  same  spot  which  had 
formerly  furnished  a  distinction  for  the  good, 
might  be  a  record  of  his  punishment. 

''  §9.  But  Bomiclar  bore  the  cruelty  of  the 
citizens  with  a  great  heart;  so  that  he  in- 
veighed against  the  crime  of  the  Carthagin- 
ians from  the  top  of  his  cross  as  from  a 
tribunal. 

^'^  §  And  when  he  had  shouted  these 
words  to  a  great  assembly  of  the  people,  he 
expired." 

Ansonius  Idyllia  VI.   54.      (Crucifixion  of 

Cupid  in  the  infernal  world. ) 

'*  Trembling  with  fear  and  vainly  seeking 
a  refuge,  they  dragged  him  forth  into  the 
crowd  in  the  midst  of  the  throng.  A 
well-knov^n  myrtle  tree  in  a  gloomy  shade 
is  chosen,  detested  through  the  punish- 
ment   of    the    gods.       There    had    Proser- 


41 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

pina  crucified  Adonis,  scorning  him  because 
mindful  of  Venus.  Amor,  hanging  from  a 
lofty  branch  of  this  tree,  hands  bound  behind 
his  back,  bewailing  the  fetters  shackling  his 
soles,  they  torture  with  no  mild  punishment. 
A  defendant  without  an  indictment,  a  pris- 
oner condemned  by  no  judge, — such  was 
Amor." 

Plautus,  Miles  Gloriosus,  IV.  19.  (Two 
servants,  Palaestrio  and  Sceledrus,  are  talk- 
ing scandal  with  the  mistress  of  their  master.) 

^^  Palaestrio.  I  think  that  in  that  self-same 
position  you  will  have  to  die  outside  the 
gates,  when  with  hands  outstretched,  you 
will  be  carrying  your  cross.  (Sceledrus,  the 
slave  addressed,  is  standing  at  the  moment 
before  the  door  v^ith  arms  stretched  out  to 
bar  entry.  The  allusion  to  the  ''gate"  is 
probably  to  the  Esquiline  or  Rhetian  gate  at 
Rome,  near  the  place  v^here  slaves  were  pun- 
ished.) 

Sceledrus.  Don't  threaten;  I  know  the 
cross  will  (as  a  matter  of  course)  be  my  end. 
There  are  all  my  ancestors,  father,  grand- 
father, grandsire,  greatgrandsire.  Enough; 
my  eyes  cannot  be  torn  out  by  any  threats  of 
yours." 

Valerius  Maximus,  II.  7,  12. 

''  Nothing  could  be  more  mild  than  the  elder 
Africanus.     Yet  for  the  establishment  of  mili- 


42 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

tar3^  discipline  he  thought  it  convenient  to  bor- 
row something  of  severit^^  from  his  own  lenity. 
For  having  taken  Carthage  and  gotten  into 
his  power  all  those  that  had  fled  from  the  Ro- 
mans to  the  Carthaginians,  he  more  severely 
punished  the  Roman  than  the  Latin  fugitives. 
For  the  first,  as  deserters  of  their  country,  he 
nailed  to  the  cross ;  the  other,  as  perfidious 
allies,  he  only  beheaded.  I  shall  not  urge  this 
act  any  further,  both  because  it  was  Scipio's, 
and  for  that  it  is  not  fitting  that  a  servile 
punishment  should  insult  our  Roman  blood, 
though  deservedly  shed  ;  especially  when  we 
may  pass  to  other  relations  not  dipped  in 
domestic  gore." 

Seneca,  Consolatio  ad  Marciam,  xx.  3. 

*'I  see  there  crosses,  not  of  one  kind  only, 
but  constructed  in  one  fashion  by  some,  in 
another  by  others.  Some  have  hung  the  vic- 
tims head  downward  to  the  earth,  others 
have  driven  a  stake  through  the  entrails, 
others  have  stretched  out  the  arms  on  the 
patibulum  (cross-bar  of  the  cross).  I  see 
cords,  I  see  the  lash,  and  separate  engines  (of 
torture)  for  the  limbs  and  individual  joints : 
but  I  also  see  death.  There  are  blood-thirsty 
enemies,  there  are  haughty  citizens,  but  there 
too  I  see  death.  Slavery  is  not  grievous  if  a 
man  may  at  one  step  pass  away  into  liberty 
when  his  master  is  weary  of  him  ;  as  defence 
against  the  cruelties  of  life,  I  have  the  kind- 
ness of  death." 

43 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

Lipsius  de  Cruce,  II.  1. 

''Not  without  reason  did  Cicero  call  the 
cross  '  a  most  cruel  and  loathsome  death ' 
and  the  poet  Nonnus  terms  it  '  a  most  crim- 
inal fate.'  Moreover  lawyers  speak  of  it, 
owing  to  its  (evil)  pre-eminence  as  the  'ex- 
treme penalty.' " 

Paulus,  Julius  P.  (A.  D.  circa  200)  says: 

"  They  are  all  the  extreme  penalty,  viz ;  the 
cross.  Ulpian  calls  it  supreme:  'if  the  ac- 
cused are  free,  they  are  given  to  the  wild 
beasts ;  if  slaves  tlie^^  suffer  the  supreme  pen- 
alty.'" 

Certainly  Paulus  enumerates  the  three  su- 
preme penalties  in  this  order:  "the  cross, 
burning,  beheading;"  the  cross,  as  you  see, 
stands  first ;  and  with  reason,  if  you  expect 
to  find  in  such  punishment  disgrace,  magni- 
tude, and  especially  long  duration. 

Juvenal,  Satire,  VI.  219-223.     (A  slave  is 

to  be  crucified  for  a  mere  whim ;   he  has  done 

nothing  to  deserve  it,  but  apparently  that 

does  not  weigh  with  his  ow^ner.) 

"  Prepare  a  cross  for  the  slave. 
"What  has  the  slave  done  to  deserve  his 
punishment  ? 


44 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

"What  witness  is  present?  Who  has  pros- 
ecuted ? 

"  You  shall  hear.  There  is  never  a  long  de- 
lay in  the  case  of  a  man's  life. 

"Oh,  you  idiot!  is  a  slave  a  human  being 
then? 

"  He  did  nothing,  I  grant ;  it  is  my  will,  and 
I  give  orders  accordingly;  such  is  my  com- 
mand. 

"My  desire  may  stand  for  a  reason  (if  you 
require  one)." 

Horace,  Satires,  I.  iii.  80-83. 

"Were  a  master  to  crucify  his  slave  be- 
cause, when  told  to  remove  a  dish,  he  licked 
up  the  half-eaten  fish  and  the  half-cold  sauce, 
men  in  their  senses  would  count  him  madder 
than  Labeo." 

Horace  lived  nearly  a  century  before 
Juvenal ;  he  reflects  the  disintegration  of  so- 
ciety, which  had  advanced  with  rapid  strides 
under  the  vicious  emperors  since  Horace's 
age. 

Plautus,  Poenulus,  IV.  ii.     (Syncerastus,  a 

slave,  is  speaking  of  some  treachery  of  his.) 

"  If  my  master  learns  that  I  have  breathed 
a  word  to  a  single  mortal,  he  will  have 
changed  me  from  Syncerastus  into  a  leg- 
broken  object  in  double-quick  time," 

45 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

Livy,  I.  26,  §6. 

"  The  law  was  worded  in  dire  strains :  '  Let 
two  commissioners  decide  re  per  dnellio.'  If 
the  defendant  shall  have  appealed  from  their 
decision,  the  case  shall  be  contested  with 
them  on  the  appeal;  if  they  shall  prevail,  the 
defendant  shall  veil  his  head  and  be  hanged 
by  a  rope  to  a  barren  (that  is,  accursed)  tree; 
and  he  shall  be  scourged  within  and  without 
the  city's  sacred  limits." 


46 


Zbc  Cructfixton  ot  Jesus. 


From  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from 
statements  in  another  paper  on  the  ''Roman 
Method  of  Crucifixion,"  it  will  appear  that 
some  new  and  interesting  questions  arise  con- 
cerning certain  facts  and  incidents  attending 
the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord.  The  most  strik- 
ing and  important  of  these  is  the  fact  of  His 
untimely  death  after  He  had  been  suspended 
but  six  hours  on  the  cross ;  other  facts  are : 
the  unnatural  darkness  during  the  last  three 
hours  of  His  execution ;  the  earthquake ;  the 
opening  of  the  graves  of  many  holy  people 
preparatory  to  the  resurrection  of  their 
bodies  three  days  afterward,  simultaneously 
with,  or  soon  after,  the  rising  of  His  own 
body.  Another  incident,  quite  singular,  is, 
that  when  they  came  to  Calvary  and  before 
attaching  Jesus  to  the  cross,  they  offered  Him 
wine  mingled  with  gall,  according  to  Mat- 

47 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

thew,  or  wine  mingled  with  myrrh,  accord- 
ing to  Mark  ;  this  was  an  unprecedented  act, 
and  may  properly  first  claim  our  attention. 

It  is  very  certain  that  the  chief  priests  and 
scribes  were  the  ruling  and  directing  powers 
through  all  the  pitiless  scenes  of  that  day 
from  the  beginning  at  the  house  of  Annas, 
during  all  the  mockery  before  Pilate,  and  at 
Calvary  till  the  close  of  the  tragedy.  These 
easily  swayed  the  wicked  and  abandoned 
rabble  to  do  v^hatever  they  suggested ;  this 
draught  of  wdne,  therefore,  was  provided  by 
their  direction,  and  it  may  be  taken  for  grant- 
ed that  it  was  brought  there  to  be  offered  to 
Jesus  from  no  kindly  or  merciful  motive. 
What,  then,  were  the  motives  ?  We  may  first 
review  a  few  facts  precedent.  Our  Lord  had 
reached  the  hill  of  Calvary  in  a  very  faint 
and  weary  condition ;  He  had  been  without 
rest  or  sleep  all  the  night,  had  passed  through 
an  experience  very  exhausting  to  soul  and 
body  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,had  taken 
no  breakfast,  and  no  meal  the  night  previous 

48 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

except  that  light  one  of  the  passover  with  its 
bitter  herbs ;  yet  with  all  this  His  mind  was 
clear,  and  His  voice  strong  to  utter  all  His 
thought.  Just  now,  at  nine  o'clock,  was  a 
critical  time  for  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  ; 
they  could  attach  Him  to  the  cross,  but  there 
might  be  danger  of  a  rescue  by  His  country 
friends  abiding  in  the  city  just  after  cele- 
bration of  the  Passover.  These  were  in  such 
overwhelming  numbers  as  to  be  able  to  over- 
awre  and  overpower  resistance  coming  from 
any  quarter  that  would  try  to  prevent  a 
forcible  rescue  of  Jesus  from  the  cross ;  and  if 
they  were  to  come  to  Calvary  in  any  great 
numbers,  but  few  words  of  appeal  would  be 
needed  from  His  mouth  to  induce  them  to 
take  such  action.  To  close  that  mouth,  there- 
fore, seemed  to  them  a  most  needful  measure ; 
an  offer  of  wine  with  myrrh  before  being 
placed  on  the  cross  might  lead  Him  to  think 
they  gave  it  to  Him  out  of  pity  for  His  ex- 
hausted state,  and  that  they  would  not  offer 
Him  the  usual  vinegar  and  gall  after  He  had 


49 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

been  placed  there ;  and  so,  when  thirst  and 
fever  should  come  upon  Him,  He  would,  in 
His  confused  state,  the  more  willingly  take 
the  latter  drink,  deceived  by  the  thought  that 
it  was  the  same  pleasant  wine  and  myrrh 
offered  Him  before. 

But  the  Divine  Man  knew  how  ''they  thus 
reasoned  within  their  hearts," and  so,  "when 
He  had  tasted  thereof  He  would  not  drink ;  " 
not  that  He  desired  a  rescue,  for  He  knew 
that  the  darkness  and  earthquake  soon  to 
come  would  so  bewilder  all  men,  friends  and 
foes  alike,  that  little  or  no  thought  would,  by 
the  mass  of  them,  be  given  to  any  one  of 
those  three  crucified  on  Calvary. 

No  stress  is  to  be  laid,  on  the  diiference 
between  Matthew  and  Mark,  the  former  giv- 
ing the  ante-crucifixion  drink  as  wine  and  gall 
in  place  of  wine  and  myrrh ;  the  mixture  of 
vinegar  and  gall  always  regularly  provided 
at  crucifixions  to  be  given  during  the  hours  of 
night  to  hush  the  cries  of  the  crucified  was 
also  at  hand,  and  it  would  be  natural  for 


50 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

Matthew,  having  written  his  Gospel  (as  it  is 
said)  after  Mark's  was  written,  to  have  be- 
come confused  in  his  recollection  as  to  the  two 
kinds  of  drink,  and  make  the  unimportant 
mistake  of  putting  gall  for  myrrh. 

The  darkness  and  earthquake  may  nowr 
claim  attention,  both  supernatural  events. 
The  darkness  was  ordered  in  the  loving  coun- 
sel of  the  Heavenly  Father  doubtless  for  two 
purposes;  the  first,  that  which  has  been 
already  noted,  to  turn  men's  minds  away 
from  thought  of  rescuing  Jesus,  and  the 
second,  to  cover  His  head  in  the  day  of  battle 
from  the  heat  of  the  noon-tide  sun,  that  so  in 
the  cool  darkness,  no  weakness  or  trouble  of 
the  afflicted  and  fevered  body  might  cloud  or 
disturb  His  intellect,  nor  any  disorder  of  the 
brain  come  in  to  hinder  Him  in  the  awful  con- 
flict with  the  powers  of  hell. 

The  earthquake  was  sent  in  order  that  the 
graves  of  those  saints  appointed  for  this 
miracle  might  be  seen  and  proved  by  many 
witnesses  to  have  been  opened  by  no  human 


51 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

hand,  so  that  during  the  three  days  interven- 
ing before  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  the  re- 
markable fact  might  be  established  beyond 
doubt  by  those  who,  in  that  time,  should 
have  examined  those  same  riven  tombs,  that 
their  occupants  had  actually  come  forth  after 
Jesus  himself  had  risen,  and  that  they  "had 
entered  into  the  holy  city,  and  had  appeared 
unto  many." 

The  recorded  words  of  Jesus  spoken  while 
on  the  cross,  were  uttered  after  the  darkness 
came;  before  that,  the  air  was  filled  with 
mockings  and  jibes  by  the  chief  priests  and 
the  abandoned  cre^w  v/hom  they  led  and  in- 
spired; and  our  Lord  would  prefer,  on  His 
part,  to  maintain  that  silence  which  ever  be- 
comes the  innocent  in  the  face  of  a  horde  of 
unjust  and  malicious,  but  powerful  and  suc- 
cessful, accusers.  But  when  the  noonday 
darkness  came  over  the  land,  the  appalled  and 
cowardly  mob  passed  quickly  off  the  scene, 
and  only  the  vengeful  leaders,  the  near  rela- 
tives and  friends,  with  the  four  soldiers  and 


52 


OP  CRUClPlXTON. 

centurion  on  duty  were  left  as  His  compan- 
ions there;  these  soldiers,  stolid  and  brutal 
as  ever  under  their  iron  discipline,  had  been, 
by  instigation  of  the  rulers  (who  all  the 
morning  had  been  fearing  a  rescue),  offering 
the  vinegar  and  gall,  contrary  to  the  usual 
custom,  during  the  time  of  broad  daylight, 
but  now,  in  the  darkness,  and  when  Jesus  had 
sent  forth  the  cry,  *'My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me? "these  soldiers, under- 
standing none  of  the  Aramaic  language  in 
which  it  was  uttered,  conceived  it  to  be  of  the 
same  sort  of  disordered  raving  they  had  so 
often  heard  on  the  crucifixion  field  ;  and  so  we 
read  the  very  natural  statement  that  one  of 
them,  without  prompting  from  any  one,  did 
according  to  the  usual  custom,  ran  to  offer 
Him  the  abominable  stuff  that  should  close 
His  throat  and  stifle  His  voice.  But  the  cu- 
riosity of  the  ignorant  leaders,  who  knew  not 
the  tenor  of  Jesus'  words,  forestalled  the  offer 
of  the  drink,  ''Let  be,  let  us  see  whether 
Elijah  cometh  to  take  Him  down ;  "  and  thus 


53 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

the  power  of  speech  was,  tinder  the  Father's 
providence,  preserved  to  Jesus,  that  He  might 
utter  His  last  ever  memorable  words.  The 
chief  priests  and  scribes  had  always  taught 
that  Elijah  must  first  come  before  the  Messiah, 
and  if  he  were  actually  to  come  now  and  at 
this  call,  Jesus  would  have  furnished  himself 
the  proof,  to  them,  of  the  falsity  of  His  claim 
totheMessiahship,  fornow  Elijah  comes  after 
Him,  whereas  he  should  come  before. 

Soon  the  appointed  moment  came  for  Him 
to  close  the  mournful  scene;  ''there  was  set 
there  a  vessel  full  of  vinegar; "  this  was  the 
common,  sour,  cheap  wine  such  as  the  sol- 
diers could  afford  to  have  as  a  regular  drink  ; 
this  vessel  of  vinegar  (of  course  without 
either  gall  or  myrrh)  was  there  as  provided 
for  themselves,  when,  having  completed  the 
task  of  execution,  and  with  a  long,  idle  day 
before  them,  ''sitting  down,  they  watched 
Him  there,"  as  they  had  often  done  before  at 
similar  scenes ;  thus  with  the  means  for  play- 
ing games  of  chance,  and  with  a  cheap  sour 

54 


OP  CRUCIPIXION. 

drink  each  crucifixion  party  passed  each  hot, 
monotonous  day  of  their  watch. 

Our  Lord  now,  in  order  that  His  vocal 
organs  might  be  for  an  instant  clear  and 
strong,  invited  the  drink  by  the  words,  *'I 
thirst;  "  there  was  no  delirium  in  His  speech, 
and  the  centurion,  seeing  it  really  a  case  of 
thirst,  doubtless  bade  the  soldiers  give  Him 
the  vinegar ;  he  was  obeyed ;  and  then,  with 
soul  fully  relieved  and  resigned,  Jesus  cried 
with  a  loud  voice,  '^  It  is  finished.  Father,  into 
thy  hands  I  commit  my  spirit,"  and  having 
so  said.  He  bowed  His  head  and  yielded  up 
His  spirit.  The  centurion  w^as  amazed: 
through  all  his  long  experience  in  crucifix- 
ions, he  had  never  known  a  similar  case ;  the 
earthquake  and  the  darkness  might  have 
impressed  him,  although  he  had  known  and 
felt  such  before,  but  here  was  a  man  pray- 
ing for  his  murderers,  silent  under  the  scorn- 
ful taunts  of  his  enemies,  innocent  of  crime,  as 
Pilate,  his  own  general,  had  testified ;  and  yet 
he  had  declared  himself  forsaken  of  God;  after 


55 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 


all  these  mutually  contradictor3^  events,  came 
the  astounding  climax  of  the  man's  death 
after  having  been  but  six  hours  on  the  cross  ! 
"Truly,  this  man  was  a  Son  of  God!"  was 
the  cry  of  the  pagan  centurion,  in  whose 
system  of  belief  a  Son  of  God  was  a  demi- 
god, a  man  endowed  by  the  principal  gods 
with  irresistible  power  over  some  particular 
forces  in  the  celestial  or  earthly  realm. 

But  what  was  the  cause  of  our  Lord's  death 
at  so  early  a  period  in  His  execution?  We 
have  already  seen  that  victims  would  remain 
alive  on  the  cross  for  many  days,  yet  here 
was  one  dying  when  but  the  fourth  part  of 
one  day  had  elapsed.  There  was  no  natural 
reason  for  the  death  at  the  end  of  six  hours. 
Jesus  was  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  full  man- 
hood, in  perfect  health,  with  constitution  un- 
impaired ;  under  the  operation  of  the  natural 
laws  of  life.  He  might  be  kept  on  the  cross 
and  live  for  three  or  four  days  at  the  least : 
the  recorded  cases  of  endurance  and  survival 
of  the  crucified  leave  no  doubt  to  us  on  this 


56 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

point.  The  death  of  our  Lord,  therefore, 
must  be  considered  miraculous.  The  most 
notable  solution  of  the  problem  hitherto 
offered,  is  that  which  attributes  His  death  to 
rupture  of  the  heart,  the  result  of,  and  climax 
to  a  period  of  intense  agony  of  mind,  and  the 
one  circumstance  on  which  this  conclusion  is 
predicated  is  that  of  the  final  cry,  ''He  cried 
with  a  loud  voice,  and  yielded  up  his  spirit." 
But  before  treating  of  this  event,  let  us  con- 
sider some  incidents  connected  with  the  post- 
mortem conditions.  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
having  learned,  probably  from  John,  that 
Jesus  was  really  dead,  went  to  Pilate  and 
asked  for  the  body,  his  request  being  made 
about  the  same  time  but  possibly  a  little  be- 
fore that  of  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees, 
that  the  three  bodies  should  be  taken  down 
and  not  suffered  to  remain  on  the  crosses  over 
night;  they  preferred  this  request  in  compli- 
ance with  that  injunction  left  them  by  Moses, 
and  recorded  in  Deut.  xxi.  22.  23.  To  Pilate 
also,  the  news  of  Jesus'  death  was  unexpect- 


57 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

ed ;  he  doubted  the  truth  of  the  report,  but 
when  it  was  confirmed  by  the  centurion ,  the 
request  of  Joseph  was  granted,  involving  as 
it  did  a  compHance  with  that  of  the  chief 
priests. 

Great  credit  must  be  given  to  Joseph  of 
Arimathea  for  his  clear-sighted  shrewdness  in 
forestalling  the  enemies  of  Jesus  by  his  own 
request ;  for  if  these  latter  had  obtained  His 
body,  they  assuredly  would  not  have  left  it 
unbroken  and  sound ;  that  their  disappoint- 
ment was  extreme  was  evidenced  by  the  fact 
of  their  second  request  made  to  Pilate  for  a 
watch  to  be  kept  over  the  body  in  the  tomb ; 
urging  for  it  the  very  natural  reason  that  He, 
a  deceiver,  having  prophesied  while  yet  alive, 
that  he  would  be  raised  from  the  dead  the 
third  day,  his  disciples,  to  carry  out  the  deceit 
and  to  fulfil  the  prophecy,  would  steal  away 
His  body. 

But  under  this  hollow  pretence  was  con- 
cealed their  real  fear,  the  fear  that  this  death, 
occurring  so  early,  beyond  any  reason  or  pre- 

58 


OP  CRUCIP'IXIOM. 

cedent,  might  after  all  be  simulated  or  might 
be  a  fainting  fit,  due  to  a  temporary  exhaus- 
tion, and  that  when  he  had  been  concealed  in 
a  tomb  which  was  in  the  care  and  keeping  of 
his  friends,  he  might  soon,  under  the  influence 
of  restoratives,  be  brought  back  to  conscious- 
ness; so  they  ''made  the  sepulchre  sure,  the 
guard  being  with  them ;"  that  guard  was 
placed  there  to  prevent  any  one  from  going  in 
rather  than  to  hinder  the  occupant  from  com- 
ing out ;  for,  if  the  former  contingency  were 
to  happen,  then  indeed  as  they  declared,  the 
last  error  of  leaving  a  body  with  unbroken 
legs  in  the  hands  of  its  friends  would  have 
been  worse  than  the  first  error  of  not  hav- 
ing had  its  bones  broken  before  being  taken 
from  the  cross.  Indeed,  it  was  of  the  ut- 
most consequence  to  these  powerful  enemies 
of  our  Lord,  that  he  should  never  come  down 
from  the  cross  in  a  sound  condition:  for 
think,  for  a  moment,  of  the  cool  diabolism 
involved  in  all  their  plans :  during  the  early 
morning  they  were  leading  the  dissolute  mob 


59 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

in  the  demand  to  ''crucify  Him,"  and  all 
that  while,  they  knew  that  Jesus,  if  cruci- 
fied, must  not  remain  on  the  cross  after  six 
o'clock  of  the  same  day ;  feeling  therefore  cer- 
tain that  He  would  be  alive  at  that  time,  they 
were  equally  certain  that  according  to  the 
rigid  and  unvarying  Roman  practice,  His 
legs  would  be  broken ;  thus,  during  all  the  six 
hours  of  the  crucifixion,  they  were  so  confi- 
dent of  this  result,  and  felt  so  secure  of  the 
success  of  their  conspiracy,  that  they  still  led 
on  and  incited  the  mob  in  their  cries,  "Let 
Christ,  the  King  of  Israel,  now  come  down 
from  the  cross,  that  we  may  see  and  believe ;  " 
"He  saved  others,  Himself  He  cannot  save; 
let  Him  come  down  and  we  will  believe;" 
"  Thou  that  destroyest  the  temple  and  build- 
est  it  i n  three  d  ays ,  s ave  thyself. ' '  The  break- 
ing of  the  legs  was  the  one  result  confidently 
reckoned  on  in  all  their  venemous  calcula- 
tions; for  then  He  might  be  delivered  alive 
and  without  protest  to  His  friends  and  rela- 
tives ;  if  He  should  then  die,  His  body  would 

60 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

bear  the  marks  of  dishonoring  crime  in  the 
broken  limbs ;  but  if  He  survived,  it  would  be 
as  a  cripple  maimed  for  life ;  He  would  be  a 
wretched  burden  to  Himself  and  friends  dur- 
ing many  and  helpless  years  of  lingering  pain. 
Here  would  be  the  triumph  of  the  priestly 
adversaries ;  no  more  would  He  pass  through 
cities  and  villages  teaching  and  preaching  His 
abominable  doctrines ;  if  ever  able  again  to 
w^alk,  no  one  would  ever  listen  to  Him ;  for  it 
was  a  law,  if  not  written,  yet  sanctioned  by 
universal  maxim,  that  any  mind,  to  be  sound 
and  entitled  to  teach  sound  precepts  to  others, 
must  be  housed  in  a  sound  body;  thus  dis- 
credited, and  His  person  ever  proclaiming  its 
own  dishonor  in  the  sight  of  all  men,  His  mis- 
sion as  a  teacher  and  leader  must  come  to  an 
end. 

They  were  dumbfounded  at  the  untimely 
and  incomprehensible  decease  of  Jesus  at  so 
early  a  stage  of  the  execution  ;  their  plot  was 
by  it  entirely  defeated,  their  plans  altogether 
foiled ;  this  impostor  who  had  so  plainly  said 

6i 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

to  all  the  world  that  after  three  days  in  death 
he  would  rise  again,  was  now  about  to  be 
put  in  the  tomb  with  unviolated  bod^^  and 
that  too,  in  the  charge  and  custody  of  his 
friends ;  nothing  now  was  easier  than  for  His 
disciples,  if  the  tomb  w^ere  left  unwatched  and 
they  thus  unhindered,  to  enter  at  the  right 
appointed  moment,  bring  Him  forth,  and  de- 
clare that  He  had  risen  from  the  dead ;  so  the 
guard  was  set,  and  we  all  know  with  what 
futile  result.  They  were  brave  and  effective 
enough  against  human  invaders  of  the  tomb, 
but  fled  from  the  presence  of  one  of  the  heav- 
enly host. 

John,  in  his  record,  lays  special  emphasis 
upon  this  omission  to  break  the  legs  as  posi- 
tive evidence  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  really 
dead ;  and  also  puts  like  emphasis  upon  the 
other  singular  appearance,  that  of  the  blood 
and  water  following  the  spear  thrust  in  His 
side,  and  he  three  tiines  reiterates  the  credi- 
bility of  his  own  testimony  —  "and  he  that 
hath  seen  hath  borne  witness,  and  his  witness 

62 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

is  true ;  and  he  knoweth  that  he  saith  true, 
that  ye  might  beHeve,"  That  omission  to 
break  the  legs  John  regarded  as  proof  posi- 
tive of  the  actual  death  of  Jesus  and  that  He 
was  not  in  any  faint  or  trance.  And  the 
blood  and  water  from  the  \vound  was  ad- 
duced as  proof  of  the  unusual  nature  of  His 
death ;  for  in  the  body  of  the  ordinary  victim 
dying  on  the  cross  after  daj^s  of  exhaustion 
from  maceration  and  fever,  the  blood  would 
by  slow  degrees  be  wasted,  the  heart  would 
grow  weaker  as  vitality  day  by  day  receded  ; 
and  as  the  end  drew  near,  it  would  throb  ever 
more  slowly  and  intermittingly,  until  at  the 
last,  its  final  pulsations  might  be  hardlj^  de- 
tected ;  it  is  evident  that  with  the  blood  being 
daily  appropriated  in  maintaining  and  repair- 
ing the  wasting  tissues,  little  or  none  of  it 
would  remain  in  any  artery  or  vein  of  the 
starved-out  sufferer,  and  then  a  spear  thrust 
into  the  body  would  elicit  little  or  no  blood 
at  all.  But  out  of  the  wound  in  Jesus'  side 
came  blood  and    water.    That  decomposed 

63 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

state  could  only  exist  in  the  case  of  a  person 
dying  as  niiraculousl}^  as  did  Jesus,  when  the 
heart  in  full  and  regular  action  would  in  an 
instant  come  to  a  complete  stop ;  so  that  the 
blood  in  its  flow  would  be  at  once  arrested, 
being  kept  in  the  arteries  and  veins,  and  in 
the  lungs  also  and  liver.  The  blood,  how- 
ever, in  this  condition,  would  at  once  begin 
to  separate  into  its  different  parts  as  above 
indicated. 

In  all  cases  of  the  death  of  ordinary  mor- 
tals the  last  contraction  of  the  heart  is  made 
with  great  force  in  such  wise  as  to  expel 
all  blood  from  the  main  arteries  and  drive 
it  into  the  terminal  capillary  vessels.  But 
no  such  contraction  took  place  in  our  Sav- 
iour's heart,  it  suddenly  stopped  in  obedience 
to  His  will,  the  arrested  blood  stood  still 
in  every  artery  and  vein ;  and  thus  the  spear 
when  soon  afterward  thrust  into  His  side, 
whether  it  entered  the  lungs  or  liver,  would 
find  the  blood  just  beginning  to  separate  in- 
to  its    component    parts,    the    serum    and 

coagulum. 

64 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

John,  if  he  could  have  had  the  knowl- 
edge of  physiology  we  possess,  would  have 
written  it:  ''There  came  out  the  decom- 
posed blood ;  that  is,  the  thick,  dark -red 
coagulum,  and  the  colorless  white  serum;" 
and  he  mentions  it  to  establish  the  fact 
of  the  strange  and  unusual  nature  of  our 
Lord's  departure;  a  parting  from  life  entirely 
inconsistent,  by  any  possibility^,  with  the 
worn-out  and  impoverished  condition  attend- 
ant upon  slow  starvation.  He  also  refers  to 
the  passage  contained  in  the  thirty-fourth 
psalm ;  one  like  many  others  serving  both  as 
a  song  of  praise  by  its  writer,  and  as  a  pro- 
phetic condensed  biography  of  our  Saviour : 
so  also  docs  he  quote  from  the  twenty- 
second  psalm  and  from  the  twelfth  chapter 
of  Zechariah  which  in  like  manner  set  forth 
the  soul  experiences  of  their  writers  as  well 
as  the  prophecies  concerning  the  anointed 
and  suifering  Messiah.  That  is,  without 
doubt,  a  very  strained  interpretation  which 
would  make  the  words  of  1  John  v.  6,  8, 

65 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

**  water  and  blood,"  to  mean  the  white  serum 
and  red  fibrine  that  came  from  Jesus'  body ; 
such  symboHsm  is  inaccurate,  inelegant  and 
irreverent;  serum  is  not  water  merely,  but 
contains  albumen  and  other  elements  of  the 
blood;  and  the  red  fibrine  is  not  blood,  but 
only  a  portion  of  the  blood.  A  much  happier 
exegesis  of  that  passage  is  that  which  sees  in 
the  water  of  baptism  in  which  Jesus  came, 
the  cleansing  and  purifying  influence  He  exerts 
upon  the  believer's  heart ;  which  sees  also  in 
the  blood  in  which  Jesus  came,  the  life  He 
gave  for  us  and  by  which,  continually  filling 
our  souls  with  it.  He  saves  us. 

The  inquiry  may  now  be  resumed,  that  of 
the  death  of  our  Saviour  so  unexpected,  when 
He  had  been  but  six  hours  on  the  cross.  The 
theory  of  a  broken  heart  does  not  well  ex- 
plain all  the  circumstances.  Heart  rupture 
can  occur  only  in  company  with,  and  as 
caused  by,  extreme  mental  distress  or  agony 
of  soul,  continued  during  an  extended  period 
of  days ;  there  is  no  evidence  in  all  the  Gospel 

66 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

records,  of  any  such  extreme  trouble  of  mind 
in  our  Lord;  in  all  cases  of  this  disease  in 
modem  records,  there  has  been,  during  some 
days  prior  to  death,  such  wandering  or  rath- 
er eclipse  of  the  intellectual  powers  as  to  put 
the  patient  in  a  kind  of  stupor,  or  render  him 
partly  incapable  of  mental  exertion ;  the  cor- 
roding sorrow  has  forbidden  thought  and 
benumbed  the  faculties.  But  our  Lord,  dur- 
ing days  and  weeks  prior  to  crucifixion,  was 
of  the  same  calm,  even-minded,  self-contained, 
rational  deportment  as  during  all  former 
days  of  His  ministry;  in  all  His  ways  and 
words  and  works  there  appears  no  token  of 
an  unbalanced  or  even  of  an  unquiet  spirit, 
not  excepting  even  the  night  in  Gethsemane. 
In  every  scene  through  which  during  the  last 
three  days  he  so  rapidly  passed,  and  whether 
in  an  active  or  passive  mood,  His  words  and 
demeanor  evince  the  high  and  calm  control 
He  had  ever  exercised  over  His  own  spirit  and 
over  the  minds  of  all  v^ho  saw  and  heard 
Him;     and    during    the    six    hours    on  the 

67 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

cross,  His  words  to  all  around  indicated  a 
quiet  repose  of  heart  and  self-possession,  an 
utter  absence  of  all  distress ;  He  spake  to  the 
penitent  thief  the  appropriate  words  of  hope 
and  pardon ;  He  gave  His  sorrowing  mother 
into  the  care  of  the  beloved  disciple;  there 
was  capacity  in  His  soul  for  the  exercise  of 
pure  and  gentle  love,  both  divine  and  human, 
to  the  penitent  thief  by  the  forgiving  God,  to 
the  mother  by  the  dutiful  and  considerate 
son ;  no  one,  suffering  such  dire  extremity  of 
distress  as  must  end  in  a  broken  heart,  could 
ever  have  demeaned  himself  so  rationally  and 
tranquilly  up  to  and  including  the  last 
moment  of  life.  In  fact,  if  such  distress  ex- 
isted, it  is  astonishing  that  the  synoptists 
give  no  intimation  anywhere  in  the  story, 
that  our  Lord  suffered  any  anguish  of  body 
or  mind  while  on  the  cross  ;  and  John,  having 
those  Gospels  before  him  when  writing  his 
own  thirty  or  forty  years  after  theirs,  and 
who  would  be  certain  to  supply  so  important 
an  omission,  not  only  makes  no  mention  of 

68 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

pain  or  suffering,  but  even  omits  the  one  sad 
plaint  offered  up  by  our  Lord  to  the  God  who 
had  forsaken  Him. 

Another  hindrance  to  our  trust  in  the  theory 
of  a  broken  heart,  is  in  the  fact  that  the  last 
cry  He  gave  forth,  and  which,  in  the  view  of 
the  advocates  of  that  theory  is  most  relied 
on  for  its  proof,  was  a  cry  with  a  loud  voice; 
but  the  cry  of  extreme  distress  and  anguish 
has  no  voice;  however  loud  and  piercing  it 
may  be,  it  is  yet  inarticulate ;  the  culminating 
agony  is  too  bitter,  too  deep,  too  sudden  at 
the  instant  the  heart  is  torn  open,  to  permit 
any  form  of  expression  more  defined  than  a 
shrill,  terrific  shriek ;  but  the  last  cry  of  our 
Saviour  was  in  clearly-spoken,  intelligent 
words,  '*It  is  finished,  Father,  into  Thy 
hands  I  commit  my  spirit;  "  they  indicate  a 
mind  unincumbered  by  any  pressure  of  bodily 
or  soul  distress,  and  prove  the  possession  of 
all  natural  faculties  in  their  normal  and  un- 
troubled operation. 

We  have  seen  that  the  victim  was,  by  the 

69 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

Roman  mode  of  crucifixion,  put  to  very  little 
actual  bodily  pain;  he  was  suspended  by 
ropes  that  allowed  free  circulation  of  blood, 
and  would  aiford  him  all  the  ease  consistent 
with  such  a  position;  he  was  wounded  by 
nails  through  hands  and  feet,  but  only  because 
they  were  customary  and  actually  nec- 
essary to  secure  him;  if  the  hands  and  feet 
were  suffered  to  rest  quietly  as  attached,  the 
little  of  blood  that  flowed  from  the  wounds 
soon  coagulated  and  stopped  any  further 
flow.  We  have  also  seen  that  the  care  of  the 
executioners  for  a  confinement  that  involved 
little  suffering  from  suspensory  or  traumatic 
causes,  was  not  prompted  by  a  sentiment  of 
mercy  or  kindness,  but  solely  with  the  intent 
to  insure  the  more  extended  and  intense 
suffering  attendant  on  the  long-drawn  agonies 
of  starvation.  When  the  appointed  moment 
drew  near,  for  the  jaelding  up  of  His  spirit,  it 
is  reasonably  certain  that  the  strength  and 
vigor  of  Jesus  were  in  no  sensible  degree 
abated,  and  that  His  mind  had  been  in  no 

70 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

wise  affected  by  the  six  hours'  duration  of 
the  punishment;  ''the  sun  had  not  burned 
Him  by  day,"  for  the  cool  darkness  had 
shielded  Him,  and  arrested  any  ill  effects  from 
thirst  or  fever ;  we  cannot,  consistently  with 
any  fair  inference,  ascribe  His  death  at  the 
ninth  hour  to  exhaustion  produced  by  either 
mental  or  soul  torture,  nor  to  any  bodily  suf- 
fering resulting  from  the  crucifixion.  What, 
then,  caused  His  early  death,  so  unexpected 
to  every  one  ?  We  are,  by  a  broad  considera- 
tion of  every  view  of  the  case,  shut  up  to  the 
one  answer,  which  is,  that  Jesus,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  right  and  power,  both  specially 
given  Him,  of  His  own  will  terminated  His 
own  life;  He  was  the  only  being  of  human 
mould  ever  authorized  and  empowered  to 
effect  the  separation  of  his  own  soul  from  his 
own  body,  and  in  John's  Gospel,  ch.  x.  vss. 
17,  18,  is  to  be  found  the  clear  statement  of 
that  fact.  ''Therefore  doth  my  Father  love 
me,  because  I  lay  down  my  life  that  I  might 
take  it  again.     No  man  taketh  it  from  me, 


71 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have  pow^er 
(efou9ta)  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to 
take  it  again.  This  commandment  received  I 
from  my  Father."  These  are  statements  too 
strong  and  explicit  to  be  construed  in  any 
other  than  their  most  direct,  positive  and 
literal  meaning,  and  that  meaning  acquires 
great  emphasis  by  the  sets  of  double  repeti- 
tions employed.  ''I  lay  down  my  life, —  no 
man  taketh  it  from  me."  ''  I  lay  it  down  of 
myself, —  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down."  ^'I 
take  my  life  again, —  I  have  power  to  take  it 
again."  *'I  received  this  commandment  (to 
lay  down  and  to  take  again)  from  my 
Father."  No  declaration  could  express  more 
clearly  and  distinctly  the  original  and  com- 
plete control  by  our  dear  Master  over  His 
own  human  life,  nor  can  they  possibly  imply 
a  mere  passive,  permissive,  unresisting  tolera- 
tion of  the  murderous  designs  of  His  enemies; 
they  signify  a  deliberate  act  originating  in 
His  own  will  and  executed  on  His  own  re- 
sponsibility;  every  deed  was  done  '*of  him- 


7a 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

self;  "  He  lay  down  His  life  when  He  chose, 
He  took  it  again  when  He  chose,  and  that 
choice  was  made  in  the  right  way,  at  the 
right  time,  and  with  a  definite  purpose  in 
view.  These  words  would  have  recalled 
what  many  of  those  then  present  had  doubt- 
less heard  Him  say  a  little  while  before, ''  I  go 
my  way,  and  ye  shall  seek  me  and  shall  die  in 
your  sins;  whither  I  go  ye  cannot  come." 
and  then  the  query  rose  in  their  gross  and 
sensual  minds  and  came  from  their  lips,  "Will 
he  kill  himself?  "  because  he  saith,  '*  whither  I 
go  ye  cannot  come  ?  ' '  Thus  with  the  former 
sayings  coupled  with  these  latter  words,  they 
thought  they  had  from  Him  the  abhorrent 
declaration,  that  He  had  been  specially  per- 
mitted by  heaven  to  commit  suicide  and 
afterward  to  take  His  guilty  soul  back  into 
His  dishonored  body ;  this  appeared  to  them 
so  monstrous  and  fantastic  that  the  only 
admissible  explanation  seemed  to  be,  ''He 
hatha  demon  and  is  mad,  why  hear  ye  him?  " 
That  was  the  scomftil  accusation  and  depre- 


73 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

cation  on  the  one  side,  but  the  sufficient 
rebuttal  of  them  came  from  the  other  side, 
''But  this  demon  was  so  good  and  powerful 
as  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind ;  surely,  no 
insane  words  can  come  forth  from  the  lips  of 
one  so  accredited  from  Heaven;  He  is  from 
God  and  must  and  does  speak  the  truth,  even 
if  we  do  not  altogether  understand  it." 

The  final  words  that  accompanied  the 
death  of  Jesus  are  most  significant.  Although 
there  are  affirmations  in  abundance  in  all  the 
New  Testament  that  Christ  was  put  to  death 
by  the  Jews,  and  although  Jesus  himself  had 
declared  that  the  chief  priests  and  scribes 
would  conspire  against  and  kill  Him,  yet  His 
last  words  are  as  far  as  possible  from  sug- 
gesting such  an  effect  as  resulting  from  such 
a  cause ;  the  words  are  not  such  as  would  be 
uttered  by  a  human  sufferer,  calling  on  men 
to  bear  witness  to  his  innocence  and  protest- 
ing against  such  a  bitter  and  undeserved  tak- 
ing of  his  life.  Throughout  all  the  pitiful 
scene  there  was  no  hint  or  suggestion  offered 

74 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

in  expostulation  against  the  disgrace  of  a 
criminal's  death ;  but  all  is  submissive  acqui- 
escence. Every  statement,  therefore,  of  the 
Acts,  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  which  the 
enemies  of  Christ  are  named  as  the  agents 
and  actors  in  causing  His  death,  is  to  be 
taken  as  implying  and  measuring  their  v^icked 
and  murderous  intent;  at  heart  they  were 
His  murderers,  and  their  every  act  was  done 
to  carry  into  effect  the  guilty  purposes  of 
their  hearts.  These  last  words  of  Jesus  have 
thus  no  reference  to  pain  of  body,  to  regret 
over  loss  of  His  life,  to  the  rancor  and  hate 
that  have  brought  Him  blameless  to  an  un- 
timely end;  but  they  are  altogether  as  the 
words  of  one  who  consciously  had  supreme 
and  kingly  control  over  His  own  life,  either 
to  retain  or  to  give  it  up.  ''Into  thy  hands 
I  commend,  TrapaTidefiat,  my  spirit"  (Luke). 
This  is  not  an  expression  to  come  forth  from 
the  soul  of  one  bitterly  afflicted,  laden  with 
grief  and  going  unwillingly  out  of  life.  Far 
from  that,  it  indicates  a  rational  and  intelli- 


75 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

gent  purpose,  a  deliberate  act  proceeding  in  a 
well-advised  and  chosen  way ;  under  no  pos- 
sible construction  could  they  represent  Jesus 
as  going  to  His  end  in  a  passive  or  protesting 
attitude  of  mind;  on  the  contrary,  they  re- 
veal an  intent  insistent  and  facile,  a  conclu- 
sion reached  by  well-ordered  thought.  Our 
blessed  Lord,  the  Lord  of  both  life  and  death, 
consciously  and  by  the  single  operation  of 
His  own  will,  separated  His  own  soul  from 
His  own  body ;  and  for  this  He  had  received 
a  special  permission  (''commandment ")  from 
His  Father.  The  time  had  come  for  that  act. 
His  work  was  finished,  as  He  declared,  and 
therefore  it  was  needless  for  Him  to  remain 
on  the  cross  any  longer. 

His  enemies  had  placed  Him  upon  that 
cross  for  the  one  purpose  of  most  cruel  bodily 
torment;  but  such  was  not  by  any  means 
His  purpose  nor  that  of  His  Heavenly  Father 
in  permitting  Him  to  be  put  there.  No  mere 
suffering  of  the  body,  however  slight,  how- 
ever severe,  had  any  place  in  the  economy  of 

76 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

redemption ;  no  mortal  torture,  whether  mild 
or  excruciating,  ever  wrought  for  the  least  ef- 
fect in  the  reconcilicition  of  our  souls  through 
Jesus  unto  God.  Serene  and  placid,  our  Sav- 
iour left  His  body,  as  if  it  were  a  garment  He 
needed  not  for  the  present  to  wear ;  He  left  it, 
not  by  constraint,  nor  for  relief  from  suffer- 
ing, but  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  the 
possibility  of  reunion  with  that  body  glori- 
fied, and  thus,  after  Him,  of  the  reunion  of 
all  saints  with  their  glorified  bodies.  The 
words  also  of  the  New  Testament  writers 
testify  to  the  deliberation  and  calmness  of 
this  putting  off:  "  He  breathed  forth,  e^eirvev- 
aev  (Mark  and  Luke).  ''  He  gave  forth,  a(j)rjKev, 
the  spirit "  (Matt) .  ''He  delivered  up,  irapeS- 
(Ofcev,  the  spirit"  (John). 


77 


IRetlecttons. 


If  what  is  thus  far  written  may  be  deemed 
valid,  as  founded  upon  legitimate  reasoning, 
then  there  are  certain  conclusions  naturally 
to  be  drawn.  One  is,  that  our  Lord  suffered 
comparatively  little  pain  from  His  confine- 
ment to  the  cross ;  the  manner  of  fastening  in 
Hiscase,as  in  the  cases  of  all  others,  was  such 
as  to  inflict  the  minimum  of  suffering  consist- 
ent with  the  retention  of  the  body  on  the 
cross ;  but  He  was  favored  above  all  others 
ever  crucified,  in  escaping  the  unshaded  heat 
of  the  sun,  with  the  mental  disorder  it  would 
have  caused.  The  pain  and  discomfort  were 
the  least  He  could  undergo  with  that  kind  of 
punishment  and  for  the  short  time  He  en- 
dured it.  The  very  proceedings  regularly 
followed  for  making  this  kind  of  execution,  in 
all  cases  one  of  extremest  cruelty,  were  those 

78 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 

actually  conducive  to  the  least  suffering  in 
His  case.  The  physical  pain  He  suffered  most 
arose  from  the  wounds  in  hands  and  feet,  yet 
if  He  kept  them  quiet  the  blood  clots  that 
soon  formed  would  exclude  the  air  in  great 
measure  and  thus  secure  nearly  full  cessation 
from  pain.  The  terrors  of  crucifixion  consist- 
ed in  its  duration,  its  hunger-pangs,  its  delir- 
ium, its  slow  drain  upon  the  vital  powers,  its 
exhaustion,  long  drawn  out,  of  blood  and 
nerves  and  strength.  Our  Lord  knew  none 
of  these;  at  the  ninth  hour.  His  bodily  condi- 
tion, except  as  to  His  wounds,  was  as  good 
as  at  the  third  hour ;  and  it  was  only  at  that 
last  hour  that  the  first  of  the  symptoms  due 
to  crucifixion  appeared,  being  announced  in 
His  own  words, ''  I  thirst."  He  hung  on  that 
cross  quietly  during  the  six  hours,  not  for  the 
sake  of  any  bodily  pain,  but  for  another  more 
awful  and  grander  purpose,  awfal  in  its  ter- 
rible experiences  and  inexpressibly  grand  in 
its  results. 
In  the  growing  tendencies  of  our  time  to 


79 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

multiply  images  of  the  cross  and  of  the  cruci- 
fixion, and  to  observe  the  anniversary  of 
Jesus'  death  with  religious  ceremonies  more 
or  less  elaborate,  the  liability  is  ever  toward 
an  increasing  regard  of  His  supposed  physi- 
cal sufferings  while  on  the  cross,  and  toward 
attributing  to  these  some  efficient  agency  in 
the  propitiation  made  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world.  We  must  turn  our  backs  con- 
stantly and  resolutely  upon  such  a  deadly 
error. 

Indeed,  the  events  of  Calvary  have  come  to 
be  viewed  so  generally  through  eyes  of  senti- 
ment or  through  feelings  of  sympathy  for 
mere  mortal  anguish,  vaguely  assumed  as 
having  been  endured  by  our  Saviour,  that 
attention  has  been  drawn  off  from,  and  there 
is  danger  of  an  utter  forgetting  of,  the  fact 
that  expiation  and  reconciliation  were  made 
on  the  cross  through  death  (not  annihila- 
tion) of  the  SOUL  of  Jesus,  and  not  through 
any  corporeal  agony.  There  is  reason  for 
believing  that  our  popular  Protestant  theol- 

80 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 


ogy,  or  rather  our  religious  practice,  has 
been  deeply  infected  by  that  Roman  Catholic 
spirit  and  practice  in  which  the  physical  suf- 
ferings attributed  to  our  Lord  are  assigned  a 
prominent,  if  not  the  larger  part  in  the  work 
of  expiation  and  redemption.  The  galleries 
of  the  Old  World  abound  in  paintings  and 
statuary  representing  what  the  artists  sup- 
posed to  be  true  of  the  events  of  the  crucfix- 
ion  day.  They  have  to  do  with  all  that 
could  be  imagined  always  of  the  painful, 
often  of  the  horrible  and  revolting,  and  some- 
times of  the  grotesque;  but  all  of  them,  in 
the  light  of  what  has  here  been  written,  are 
grossly  untrue.  Copies  in  colors,  in  print  or 
photograph  of  these  false  but  attractive 
w^orks  of  art  have  been  distributed  in  count- 
less numbers  throughout  the  Protestant 
peoples  of  both  continents,  and  their  influ- 
ence upon  Christian  thought  and  culture  has 
been  anything  but  good  and  wholesome.  On 
this  subject,  nothing  more  appropriate  could 
be  said  than  the  following  by  John  Ruskin : 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

**  Therefore,  of  all  subjects  that  can  be  ad- 
mitted to  sight,  the  expressions  of  fear  and 
ferocity  are  the  most  foul  and  detestable; 
and  so  there  is  in  them  I  know  not  what 
sympathetic  attractiveness,  for  minds  cow- 
ardly and  base,  as  the  vulgar  of  most  na- 
tions ;  and  as  they  are  easily  rendered  by  men 
who  can  render  nothing  else,  they  are  often 
trusted  by  the  herd  of  painters  incapable  and 
profane,  as  in  that  monstrous  abortion  of 
the  first  room  of  the  Louvre,  called  the 
Deluge,  whose  subject  is  pure,  acute,  mortal 
fear;  and  so  generally,  in  the  senseless  hor- 
rors of  the  modern  French  schools,  spawm  of 
the  guillotine And  manifold  in- 
stances of  the  same  feeling  are  to  be  found  in 
the  repainting  of  the  various  representations 
of  the  Inferno,  so  common  through  Italy ; 

so  in  the  Inferno  of  Santa  Maria 

Novella,  and  of  the  Arena  chapel,  not  to 
speak  of  the  horrible  images  of  the  Passion, 
by  which  vulgar  Romanism  has  always  striv- 
en to  excite  the  languid  sympathies  of  its  un- 

82 


OF  CRUCIFIXION. 


taught  flocks.  Of  which  foulnesses  let  us 
reason  no  further,  the  very  image  and  mem- 
ory of  them  being  pollution;  only  noticing 
this,  that  there  has  always  been  a  morbid 
tendency  in  Romanism  toward  the  contem- 
plation of  bodily  pain,  owing  to  the  attribu- 
tion of  saving  power  to  it ;  which,  like  any 
other  moral  error,  has  been  of  fatal  effect  in 
art,  leaving  not  altogether  without  the  stain 
and  blame  of  it  even  the  highest  of  the  Ro- 
manist painters,  as  Fra  Angelico  for  instance, 
wrho,  in  his  Passion  subjects,  always  insists 
v^eakly  on  the  bodily  torture  and  is  unspar- 
ing of  blood;  and  Giotto,  etc.,"  (Modern 
Painters,  Part  III,  Sec.  I,  Chap.xiv.,  ^29). 

From  such  representations  in  art,  therefore, 
there  is  much  of  evil  to  be  apprehended 
through  the  defilement  and  debasement  of 
our  evangelical  principles,  and  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  this  morbid  sympathy  for  a  suf- 
fering that  never  was  endured  by  our  Saviour 
may  be  productive  of  serious  and  wide-spread 
error  among  the  masses  in  our  Protestant 

churches. 

83 


THE  ROMAN  METHOD 

The  cross  did  not  mean  for  Jesus  either  the 
common  death  of  men  or  any  severe  suffering, 
but  only  shame;  and  He  endured  it,  despis- 
ing, not  death  nor  suffering,  but  the  shame  of 
it.  The  moral  and  social  status  of  the  worst 
criminal  ever  attached  to  a  cross  could  not 
have  been,  by  law  or  custom,  fixed  lower 
than  that  assigned  to  our  pure  and  innocent 
Master  when  Pilate  delivered  Him  to  the 
chief  priests,  and  bid  them  do  with  Him  as 
they  desired.  The  rule  declared  by  our  Elder 
Brother,  that  ''he  that  humbleth  himself 
shall  be  exalted "  applies  to  Him  also;  for 
since  He  humbled  Himself  and  became  obedi- 
ent even  to  the  death  of  the  cross,  therefore 
God  highly  exalted  Him,  to  give  Him  a  name 
that  is  above  every  name.  Thus,  by  the  cross 
of  shame,  of  hate,  contempt  and  ignominy, 
the  lowest  of  all  men  may  be  brought  close  in 
fellowship  to  our  Master's  side,  and  may,  as 
was  the  penitent  thief,  be  assured  of  being 
some  day  with  Him  in  Paradise. 

The  death  He  suffered  was  death  of  the 


84 


OP  CRUCIFIXION. 

SOUL,  the  awful  second  death ;  and  we  must 
beHeve  that  in  order  to  know  how  to  redeem 
men  from  that,  it  was  the  death  of  a  lost  hu- 
man soul  He  experienced  during  the  three 
hours  of  darkness  on  the  cross  !  Over  such  a 
death,  how  glorious  the  triumph,  how  un- 
speakably great  the  victory !  It  was  a  small 
thing  for  Him  to  return  after  three  days  to 
the  body  in  Joseph's  tomb,  but  it  was  the 
Mighty  God  of  the  universe  whose  soul  was 
brought  up  from  that  av^ful  death  which  He 
tasted  for  every  man.  It  was  for  this  that 
God  had  ages  ago  given  Him  the  assurance  of 
both  kinds  of  resurrection;  the  resurrection 
of  His  soul,  that  it  should  not  be  left  in  hell ; 
the  resurrection  of  His  body,  that  it  should 
not  see  corruption.  His  soul,  made  sin  for 
us,  and  under  the  wrath  of,  because  forsaken 
by.  His  God,  met  and  overcame  all  the  pov^ers 
of  hell,  and  thereby  made  sure  our  souls'  vic- 
tory over  the  same  death,  the  same  hell. 

But  the  subject  now  opens  very  widely,  and 
further  discussion  of  it  may  properly  be  de- 
ferred. 

85 


DATE  DUE 

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